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If you’re anything like me, you scour the net first thing each morning, then again in the afternoon, and once more before going to bed for the latest Hip-Hop news.  For this week, you heard about how Clifford Harris basically got off his assault weapons charges by promising to do anti-gun PSA’s for the kids.

Back in October, it seemed pretty serious that T.I.P. was about to get serious time for possession of an arsenal that might have put Enrique’s Salceda’s underground weapons cache to shame.  But whatever the case may be, him having a strong legal team or being a dreaded “itch” word (this one doesn’t start with a “b” and Cam’ron wouldn’t be caught being one even if it meant letting a child molestor live in the apartment next to his), this wasn’t the first time Cliff got caught up.

Refer to the picture for the first sting operation.

Btw, huge props to Jabbawockeez.  Was there ever any doubt?  UCSD stand up.

-Ninoy Brown

I’ve noticed that in the wake of a lot if big-thangs-poppin’ in the world of race, politics, media, and social justice, FOBBDeep has been outstandingly responsible in keeping up with posts related to neat rap songs, totally awesome trading cards, and Randy Jackson’s America’s Best Dance Crew (ABDC for short).

So… to followup the post on hip-hop legends, there are two people who immediately come to mind when talking about who deserves a Yo MTV Rap trading card. Because, seriously, it can’t be just FOBBDeep who thinks that not only do these two dudes look hella alike, but they also must be swimming in the same gene pool of musical mastery.

Flo-Rida… meet David from the Real World New Orleans. Your brother.

Hella “e-props” goes to the person who can pinpoint a quality mp3 of David Broom’s hit song “Come and Be My Baby Tonight.” …It did promising things for the resurgance of skat performed by body builders.

In case you missed it:

Zweedabba dee dabboodee
Zweedabba dee dabboodee
Come and be my baby tonight [Concentrate/eyes-closed]
Come and be my baby tonight
I’ve seen the way you treated other thugs you been with
Come and be my baby tonight

Ninoy is single.

-Mark

In response to Gotty’s post at The Smoking Section and the upcoming 20th anniversary.

A couple years back I came upon a website that slanging boxes of Yo! MTV Raps trading cards. $5 for a box of 36 packs!!![1] I guess kids trading Eric B & Rakim’s for Leaders of the New School’s never caught on with the masses, or even die hard card enthusiasts. But since they were cheap as hell, I ended up copping a couple boxes and gave em to folks as Christmas presents (my bad for those of you who got one and thought I actually dropped funds on some hard to find Hip-Hop antiques).

After being playing Hip-Hop Santa, which is kinda like playing Hip-Hop Harry, I saved two for my own personal collection and another two as gimmicks to get student participation during various workshops we did back in college. Don’t front on the educational value of Yo! cards.

I was planning on keeping my boxes sealed and unopened for the hope that one day a late eighties/early nineties Hip-Hop revival would spur interest in the cards and eventually help me pay off some student loans. Well, that day didn’t come soon enough, and even though it did come, I don’t think card collecting is as enticing as it used to be. So, I decided to open up one of my boxes and let my OCD take shape, organizing sets by card numerically.

What I found in the collection of 150 cards showed an interesting display of the hegemony of the rap game at the time:

-MC Hammer (8 cards)
-Vanilla Ice (8)
-Young MC (8)
-Doctor Dre & Ed Lover (8)
-LL Cool J (7)
-Public Enemy (7)
-Run DMC (7)
-Heavy D & The Boyz (5)
-Fab Five Freddy (5)
-Eric B. & Rakim (5 - but 2 pairs are practically identical)
-Bell Biv Devoe (4)
-Big Daddy Kane (4)
-Digital Underground (4)
-Tone Loc (4)

Folks that interestingly have their own card: Paris, BWP (Bytches with Problems), L.A. Posse, Nikki D, Oaktown’s 3.5.7., Rappin’ Is Fundamental, & The Afros

Often times, we like to look back at Yo! as a show that maintained the last inkling of Hip-Hop authenticity on MTV, yet the matter of fact is that it was inherently flawed in it’s own attempt in reppin’ a culture.  MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, and Young MC as the rappers with the most cards?  I’m sure KRS’s backpack was cutting the ciruclation to his arms when he saw this. 

Before going into an endless banter about the commodification of Hip-Hop via MTV, I want to get to the real issue at hand: the elusive card #23.  This is the only card keeping me from obtaining a full set of Yo! MTV Raps trading cards.  Who might be the face of this card? Did Jordan have a short lived rap career that I did not know about?  Does the space belong to the super limited edition MC Hammer hologram that does the typewriter as you shift the angle of the card from left to right? 

#23 should be sitting tightly in between Doctor Dre & Ed Lover and EPMD, instead, I have a blank piece of paper holding it’s place.

?????

If any of you have this mysterious #23, I’ll trade you a Ted Demme, 2 Young MCs, 3 Vanilla Ice’s, and a Young Black Teenagers.

Get at me.

[1] I was ripped off though, since I recently found a spot that sells boxes for $1.99.

-Ninoy Brown

Guest Poster: Noesis

In an effort to continue our battle against carpal tunnels syndrome, the FOBBDeepers have outsourced and asked the homie, Noesis, to offer his take on America’s Best Dance Crew. And a disclaimer to the reader, this is what a obtaining a graduates degree in Ethnic Studies does to you (jokes… kinda… err… but we do bow down to the brother’s knowledge). -Ninoy

Americas Best Dance Crew is a a show on MTV which is becoming more popular by the episode, the competition for naming the Best Dance Crew in America is receiving massive attention that is reaching American Idol Status. What I am interested is looking at a critical cultural analysis that takes us beyond crews and dancing look into the indirect or direct ways Kaba and Jabba are intertwined. I do not want to add to the debate of KABA VS. JABBA, I just want people to realize why these groups are breaking through the STATUS QUO!

I have no historical affiliation to Kaba Modern of the UCI but what I do understand is that, Kaba Modern historically a Filipina/o American dance troup birthed out of the University of California Irvine-PCN culture. Traditionally, Pilipino Cultural Nights which takes place on college campus around the westcoast, developed by Filipina/o American students, have a MODERN DANCE, typically a hip hop routine. Kaba Modern comes from the Filipina/o American student organizationg UCI’s KABABAYAN. Which translates in Tagalog as Townmate, Homie from the neighborhood. Kaba shows there multigendered, multigenerational, and multiethnic appeal, housed inside Filipino American organization.

(more…)

So it turns out that the rumor that Jay-Z is half-Filipino isn’t true. And, no, Foxy Brown isn’t half-Filipino either. I think Jay-Z just had a problem with Asian specificity.

But the good news is that one of my favorite DJ’s came up on probably the greatest hip-hop DJ gig of today:

“Your boy Neil Armstrong of the Almighty 5th Platoon will be Jay-z ‘s DJ for the Heart of the City Tour. Yes, Jay-z, not J-Zone as Daddy Dog used to say to me. I’ll be rocking the stage along with Mr. Carter and Mary J across the U.S. and Canada, check out http://www.defjam.com for tour dates in a city near you.”

The 5th Platoon DJ crew has been a big part of the East Coast hip-hop scene and a big influence on DJs around the world. Neil Armstrong is most most noted for his depth of mix CDs covering spans of hip-hop music samples, slow jams, corny 80’s R&B, etc. Just about every hip-hop head I know has at least one of his mixes.

I’m glad more artists are gravitating towards skilled DJ’s as being more than a mere stage prop.

(Cred to Predakon!)

-Mark

It’s been said, but this track does make me feel like a freshman in high school again.

Supposedly off of Big Boi’s summer release, Sir Luscious Left Foot, is an unofficial sequel to “Skew It On the BBQ” done proper.  Big Boi murders the track just like the first time this trio put it on wax:

Big Boi - Royal Flush feat. Andre & Raekwon

-Ninoy Brown

Bush, in the words of Gino the Ginny, “Go f*ck ya self”

Plus a middle finger salute to the Congress that voted in favor of giving the megalomaniac all of Bush’s unchecked powers.

I’ll keep this short and give a blessing to the the nearly 4,000 American casualties and also to the often forgotten 80,000+ Iraqis lost.

This is also in memory to all the social programs lost, as $3 trillion becomes diverted to funding a war that many in this nation still falsely believe was justified due to Saddam’s involvement in 9/11.

More stats: Iraq by numbers, a detailed list released by Senator Harry Reid

So with that, I leave the prophesied words of a former President, who had tremendous faults, but was able to speak of the threats that now plague this country, the military industrial complex:

(Video clip from Why We Fight.)

-Ninoy Brown

Since last week I’ve been meaning to touch on all the hype surrounding Obama, from the game of oppression olympics played by Geraldine Ferraro to the backlash Obama has received as a result of Reverend Wright’s sermon. For various reasons, mainly due to laziness, I never got around to a real post.

In terms of Barack’s quick response to the “inflammatory” remarks made by Wright, I was eager to discuss my frustration with Barack in what seemed to be shameless damage control by throwing Rev. Wright under the bridge. Where did my frustration come from? I believed the sermon by the Rev., which was the same 30 second loop played constantly on television, was (to put it simply) REAL TALK. So why did Barack feel a need to distance himself from sermons that denounced systemic issues of racism that pervades the country? Part of my post calling this into question was sitting in my Wordpress drafts, ready to be finished today. Something happened though. Barack discussed Wright and did even more; he did what no person in such a high profile position has ever done in American politics and called attention to the issue of race in our society:

Read the full text

It’s been over a year since I heard that Benson Lee had created a documentary called Planet B-Boy that captured a contemporary illustration of the b-boy/girl scene. Freshest Kids is probably still the best film documenting the emergence of the culture, offering a historical framework, yet what it lacked was a strong representation of the global phenomenon that has been around since the ’90s, which is what this film brings.

Aside from what you see on music videos, certain cats going the mainstream route and poppin’ up on television talent shows, there is still a vibrant community that has never faded out of existence, despite what movies like Kickin’ It Old Skool may imply. For those that aren’t in the know, most of the cats in the Jabawockeez live their own respected lives in the b-boy realm, rockin’ with Full Force, Rhythm Bugz, etc. What Planet B-Boy does, is to show that this is culture is still alive and throwing Ong Bak kicks, and it illustrates the international force. And while I still haven’t seen the full documentary yet, I’m sure it also shows that crews outside of the U.S. might be killin’ it more than crews from the nation that birthed the dance.

Peep the trailer:

Make sure to catch this if it comes to your neck of the woods. The film is receiving a wider release at various Landmark theaters throughout the U.S. If you are in the Bay, also try to peep Always Be Boyz, a closer look at the Korean b-boy scene (Koreans, btw, have been murkin’ the scene for a minute) at SFIAAFF this Thursday.

-Ninoy Brown

Anyone out there watching the lame excuse for a hip-hop dance group competition TV show called America’s Best Dance Crew? I am. Jabbawockkeez and Kaba Modern (Kababayan Modern) are dope! They’re, like, so killin’ it for So-Cal Filipinos, Asians, and non-Filipino-Asians-in-Filipino-student-organizations right now. I’m so excited.

On another note…

When questioned for his credibility to judge a hip-hop dance group competition, JC Chasez furiously responded:

That’s just the way I do my thang
I’m so for real
Are you feeling my Timbs, my baggy jeans
My thug appeal…

Real talk = JC Chasez circa 1999.

-Mark